Bhubaneswar, Dec. 9: Manish Kumar had to wait at the railway booking counter for barely 10 minutes to get a ticket to Jamshedpur, his hometown. Getting change from the booking clerk, however, was a different story altogether for the 20-year-old BTech student.

The Patia resident got a sleeper class ticket for Rs 295 on the Purushottam Express.

"I had a Rs 2,000 note and the booking clerk asked me to wait for the change. The booking took hardly 10 minutes, but I had to wait another 15 minutes to get the balance," he said.

He said had the booking counter accepted credit cards, he would not have had to face such a long wait.

Railway reservation counters at Bhubaneswar station are yet to have point of sale (PoS) machines that enable payment through debit or credit cards. Although the railway has an online booking facility, almost 70 per cent people prefer to book their tickets over the counter, sources said.

"The IRCTC website often hangs during peak season. So, I prefer booking tickets at the counter," said 35-year-old Narendra Singh, a central government employee who lives in Shastri Nagar.

He added that paying for tickets would become hassle-free if reservation counters had PoS machines.

"If India is gearing up to go cashless with even small vendors having PoS machines, the railway, too, should adopt the practice," he said.

Railway booking counters still accept Rs 500 notes that were demonetised by the Centre on November 8. However, most people have already deposited or exchanged their old currencies for new ones, most of which are in the form of 2,000 rupee notes. Now, getting change for these has emerged as a challenge.

In case of short distance travel where tickets cost between Rs 200 and Rs 300, booking clerks have to fumble for change, delaying the entire process as a result.

A booking clerk said most people sought change for Rs 2,000 notes. "We often run out of change as there are not enough Rs 100 or the new Rs 500 notes," she added.

When the demonetisation exercise was announced, the railways had witnessed a surge in reservations.

"There was a surge in booking with the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Over time, there has been a decline in those numbers," she said.

The official Twitter handle of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has been flooded with requests to install PoS machines at reservation counters over the past month.

ECoR spokesperson J.P. Mishra said talks were on with banks to install PoS machines at reservation counters.

"The railway is committed to encouraging a cashless society and all our reservation counters across the state would have PoS machines for the convenience of passengers shortly," he said.

In a related development, the Centre scrapped the use of the demonetised Rs 500 notes at booking counters from today midnight.